About: robert

Last Tuesday I went along to the Adam Smith Institute to listen to Brendan Brown launch his new book, “The Global Curse of the Federal Reserve”.   Brendan picked out three channels through which  central banks’ ultra-low interest rate polices can trigger asset price inflation (followed invariably by a crash):   Central bank pegging of…
» Continue Reading

The first thing to say about Haruhiko Kuroda, nominated as the next governor of the Bank of Japan, is that he is a very nice man. Whenever I have met him, he has been not only modest and friendly, but also ready, willing and able to discuss policy issues and ready to modify his opinion…
» Continue Reading

Antony Jenkins, who replaced Bob Diamond as chief executive of Barclays Bank during the Libor scandal, says that Barclays should be seen as a bank that is “doing well financially and behaving well”. Now Sir David Walker, the urbane chairman (and G30 alumni) and Jenkins hope that by revealing the numbers earning more than £1…
» Continue Reading

Governments of the Euro area and the ECB must not let the euro strengthen to the point where it threatens the euro area recovery. It should not rise above $1.40 – it is now at $1.31. When the euro strengthened sharply in 2009, it triggered weakness that led to the euro sovereign debt crisis. But…
» Continue Reading

    New attempts are being made to resuscitate the “savings glut” hypothesis of the origins of the great financial collapse and recession and the eurozone’s agony. This hypothesis is wrong.   What matters is not saving but financing. Countries running current account surpluses do not finance those running current account deficits.The deficits are financed…
» Continue Reading